


Once upon a time

by and-by-the-tree (countingthenights)



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-03
Updated: 2012-04-03
Packaged: 2017-11-02 23:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/374661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/countingthenights/pseuds/and-by-the-tree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, Touya Akira had friends that no one else could see. Then like everyone else, he grew up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once upon a time

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by hostilecrayon for Cracktastic March. Only it became a creepy!possessed sadfic and I'm sorry. Or not.

Staring across the goban, Akira asked cheerfully, “So, Hoshi-san, you wanted to play at 16-4, right?” Without waiting for an answer he reached for a white stone and placed it at that point, before picking up a black stone and playing at 4-16. “Where do you want to play next?”

The only answer was silence, but Akira just smiled happily and said, “Right, 4-14.”

-

Playing against his father shouldn’t make him nervous any more, but Akira really did want to play well and make him proud. If he could kill that group of stones, he would be leading in terms of territory.

Tsuke-san agreed that 7-4 was a good move, so Akira played there. If Touya Meijin noticed that his son’s eyes darted more to the left even though there was nothing but the window there, he didn’t comment.

-

Akira knew that he should be paying attention in class, but he already knew how to add and subtract. It was part and parcel of any Go player’s skill package, and watching the teacher struggle to get the children to understand what was happening with the apples on the chalkboard wasn’t enough to occupy his mind.

So instead he played Go with Hane-san. Hane-san followed him to school and sat in the empty seat beside him every day, and right now she was jabbing his arm with a finger to remind him to mark her move on the 9x9 board he drew in his notebook.

-  
The first time he met Shindou Hikaru at twelve, he had wondered if the other boy was anything like him. Hoshi-san and Tsuke-san and Hane-san were all long gone, but the way that boy occasionally angled his head to the side and paused his hand in midair made him feel like maybe he had someone like that by him. Like he had his own Hoshi-san or Hane-san sitting by his side and keeping him company every day.

The shadows of his imaginary friends were always there, even when he stopped calling out to them. And when he played Shindou Hikaru, it was almost as if they were waiting for him to turn to them again.


End file.
